Monthly Archives: April 2012

This Sunday, The Back Room at Confit Bistro (4/9 Doggett St, Fortitude Valley) showcases some fine local talent, including live poetry from Jonathan Hadwen, the circus stylings of performer Ellen Grow, visual art from Samantha Norman, the sweet jazz of Sarah Collyer and the debut live performance of some of the work from the Friday Night Lights Project, including the live sounds of Sheish Money and an exhibition of photography by Cindy Keong. So if you are looking for something to light up your Sunday afternoon, look no further!

Doors open at 4pm and if you have a poem or two, fold them in your pocket, as the mic is Open!

Here’s a hit of what you will experience!

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Route 199by Jonathan Hadwen

You can fall in love
on nights like this
delayed and distracted
on your way home from work
too long since you last ate

sitting in a daze
crammed on a bus
next to a girl with Scandinavian skin
a girl so beautiful you might think
she floats across the top of life

There are nights when you expect strangers
to throw kisses not punches
those kisses buzzing in the air
in your ear
filling the space left by non-existent conversation

There are nights
saved for cities and crowds
and bus rides
in which you might fall in love
and then out of love again
before you’ve even reached
the next stop.

The marvelous Mr. Andy White is in town tomorrow night to launch his second collection of poems, Stolen Moments at Riverbend Books alongside the launch of Brisbane New Voices III and readings from Tessa Leon & Brett Dionysius, so I took some time to ask Andy how he is feeling about the book and whether any personal favourites have emerged.

AW: Both of my poetry books are best read quickly. The ideas are instant and there aren’t any words you won’t understand. There are hidden layers, but you can get them next time around. What I take time on is finding the tone of voice for the whole collection, and the order the poems come in. If I get it right (and with the latest I had Graham and Julie’s invaluable help) you should be able to read the book backwards and it will make another kind of sense.

In fact I just read the whole of ‘Stolen Moments’ in about twenty minutes from back to front and got a whole different take on it. It felt like I was coming back to Australia, whereas for me it’s my ‘I have arrived’ book, starting off in ‘Suburbia’ with Sunday morning lawnmowers and frozen marmalade on burnt toast.

I can now write about red and yellow flags, eternally blue sky and shopping malls without fear of being branded a tourist, but even though I wrote these poems in Australia they aren’t all set here. The poems circumnavigate the globe at top speed with ‘In LA I Dream Of Books’, ‘Judy Collins’ Cats’, something I wrote for Peter Gabriel based on a Tom Waits song, and a couple in Ireland before returning back to ‘Real Life Rushing In’, caught between Beckett fans and footy supporters on the 5.09 from Flinders Street.

It’s the instant quality of these poems which attracts me. When each new studio album is such a roll of the dice, with so much at stake, and has to be mixed and recorded with the utmost care, usually over a long period of time, I am almost embarrassed at the speed with which a thought can be scribbled down and become a poem.

Because of this, for me the poems are about freedom. It’s as if a whole collection of those songs I described in a previous question which arrive almost instantly, go straight from my head to the pages of a book. As such, it’s difficult to pick out favourites. I think they work – in fact, sometimes I think they only work – as a whole.

If you asked me again to choose, I’d say my favourites aren’t the ones which I might read out first. They are the ones which contain the most private moments. The ones stolen from all the public time you have to put in. The time spent hanging around waiting for the gap in the clouds where the magic gets in.

Our house has been music-filled since Record Store Day. One of the real finds of the day was a Record Store Day Special Edition, Eight Trails, One Path, which brings together the sounds of eight of the world’s leading guitar innovators. From the spaghetti-western-styled sounds of Alvarius B. to Lee Ranaldo’s sparse soundscapes, the album explores the limitless potential of a man and his guitar. You can listen to the full album here and purchase it as a download. I can feel that this will be an album that generates some new words…

The sad news of Levon Helm’s passing today has got me even more fired up about Record Store Day tomorrow. Tonight, I will be reliving (and reloving) the Last Waltz and some clips from his Midnight Rambles and then in the morning, I will be dancing on down to TITLE to get my hands on some sweet, sweet vinyl. Some of the Record Store Day Specials include:

It’s a matter of days now until Brisbane New Voices III featuring Vanessa Page & Carmen Leigh Keates will be launched at Riverbend Books on Tuesday, April 24. Joining Vanessa & Carmen on the Riverbend deck will be Slam Queen, Tessa Leon, founder of the QLD Poetry Festival, Brett Dionysius and global traveller, singer / songwriter / poet, Andy White. Following the launch, Brisbane New Voices III will be available for purchase on this site, but more on that later…

For now, here’s the details of where to book your ticket. It’s going to be a night to celebrate!

The internet has been buzzing with news that founding member of The Band, Levon Helm is now in the final stages of his battle with cancer. Levon has had a long road, but his famous ‘Midnight Rambles’ at The Barn (his studio), in Woodstock, featuring the Levon Helm Band playing with guests such as Emmylou Harris, (the late) Hubert Sumlin, Elvis Costello & Gillian Welch, have not only helped pay his medical bills for the last decade, but have reinvigorated his musical career and produced three consecutive Grammy Award winning albums – Dirt Farmer, Electric Dirt and Ramble at the Ryman. So send a little love Levon’s way… his music has filled countless hearts with joy.